a small piece of paper, cloth, or plastic attached to something that gives information such as a name, size, or price
The new jacket still had a tag hanging from the collar.
Before boarding, Miguel tied a name tag to his suitcase so it wouldn’t get lost.
✦ From Middle English tagge, meaning the pointed end of something; later extended to labels and tickets.
a children’s running game in which one player chases others and tries to touch one of them
At recess, the kids spread out across the field to play tag.
“You’re it!” shouted Jamal after he tapped Ella during tag.
✦ The game name comes from the earlier sense of ‘touch or mark lightly’.
to attach a tag or label to something so it can be identified
The farmers tag the calves’ ears with numbers for easy tracking.
Please tag each suitcase with the passenger’s name and flight number.
✦ Verb sense developed from the noun meaning ‘label’.
a word or symbol inside angle brackets, such as , used in HTML or other markup languages to tell a computer how to display information
The tag makes a line of text appear as the main heading on a webpage.
Remember to close every HTML tag with a slash, like
✦ Adopted in the 1980s from the idea of attaching a label to data.
to mention or identify someone or something in a social-media post by adding their name or username
Don’t forget to tag me in the group photo on Instagram!
He tagged the restaurant so his followers could see where he ate.
✦ Extended from the idea of attaching a digital label to a person’s profile.
a short question like “isn’t it?” added to the end of a statement to ask for agreement
“It’s cold today, tag?” the teacher asked to check if the class agreed.
English learners often forget to use the correct question tag.
✦ From the idea of “tagging on” a small piece at the end of a sentence.
